My hobby is to watch the arctic, and there are signs the melt this summer will not reduce the extent as much as recent years. The question this year is not whether we will set a new minimum record, but rather is whether we will get back to average. If we do get back to average it will boot the people who talk about a “death spiral” of ice-melt into a tailspin of their own.

Besides the pile-up of multi-year ice north of Canada, which has increased the amount of thicker ice, there is the simple fact the weather pattern has involved “meridianal” circulations which brings much more cross-polar-flow to the arctic sea, torturing the first-year “baby ice” and creating leads and pressure-ridges even in the depth of winter, when temperatures are thirty-below. The sea loses heat with the creation of each lead, and exposing the water creates more ice because the water swiftly freezes over when exposed. Then, when the sides of these leads come crushing together like the jaws of a bear trap, the ice piles up as a long, thin jumble of ice called a pressure ridge, some small but some protruding up as much as thirty feet and down nine times as far. Lastly, when these jumbles fall apart in the summer thaw they spread out like a small pat of butter over a large piece of toast, adding to the “extent” calculations in a way that often seems to defy logic, when you don’t know all the details.

One source of visual information I like to use is the websites of young adventurers skiing over the arctic sea. They likely spend more on their hikes than I make in a year, and often need to talk people into sponsoring their fun. They can talk quite a line about Global Warming and how they may be the last to ski these frozen seas. (Some may find their sites hard to stomach, but I get a chuckle over the audacity of youth.) The thing that has been interesting to watch this year is how they react to the mangled and tortured “baby ice.” Its not a nice flat surface they are crossing, and one fellow simply quit and was airlifted out, as he knew he was going to run out of food before he reached the Pole. Others show admirable fortitude and courage, despite their politics. All send back pictures by satellite phone of pretty impressive pressure-ridges north of Canada. At times the pictures make them look like ants on huge grains of white sand, and they even remark on how the ice is much more difficult to cross than it was during earlier hikes, but they are very quiet about the fact the ice is building and not shrinking, north of Canada. I wonder if they are blind, or simply don’t want their free vacations spoiled by comments that annoy their patrons.

Not blind Caleb but afraid to state the the Emperor has no clothes. When your paycheck depends on pushing the GLO-BULL warming party line you will push the GLO-BULL warming even if you know it is a con job.

This is true, but only to a point. A boss can push his employee only so far. This is especially true of the young, who often act first and think later.

Many of us, if we think back to our youth, can remember times we lost it and walked out of a workplace in a white rage, even though it meant we were going to be in trouble when it came to paying the bills.

Sometimes people resemble lemmings, but we actually aren’t quite so stupid. We may get to the edge of a cliff, driven like sheep, but we hesitate when it comes to being driven over the verge.

If this wasn’t true I don’t think people like Mr. Goddard would work so hard creating sites like this one.

People who oppose the government, or any form of convention, are always going to face unpleasant consequences, especially at first when they are a voice in a wilderness. However it is an amazing thing, when more and more join the opposition, and the trickle becomes a flood.